Christmas 2010 (Part 3)

Our Christmas adventures continue, this time in slightly warmer Greensboro, NC at my sister's beautiful home.  Seriously, have I ever mentioned jealous I am of their home and how clean it is?  I suppose it's a little easier when you don't work, but then again, I also think of my sister as supermom =). 

But I digress.  December 23rd was a rather low key day.  The first part of the day was spent hanging out and reacquainting the cousins with each other.  Have I mentioned how glad I am Taylor has a boy cousin?  Who else could teach her to do this?

Yep, Will taught Taylor to pick her nose.  At least she's not eating what she finds inside yet!  Will seriously is a great older cousin.  He was very gentle with Taylor the whole time.  Anytime she cried, he'd come over and try to comfort her and he liked playing with her.  Many times during our trip he would say "I think she really likes me."  Yes, Will, we think she does too. 

Later that evening, my sister hosted a big Christmas party for their friends in the neighborhood.  There were lots of kids there!  And a Christmas party with kids would not be complete without....

Santa!  Wondering who's behind that beard?  It was Walker!  My sister asked him to play Santa at the party and he did a great job.  Will didn't even know it was him.  Santa read two books at the party ("Olive the Other Reindeer"- super cute book, and "Twas the Night Before Christmas") and listened to what the kiddos wanted for Christmas. 

Courtney (our super adorable niece) told Santa she wanted a pony (what little girl doesn't?).  In fact, she told everyone not only that she wanted a pony but that she was getting a pony for Christmas.  What did Will want the most?  Rollerblades!  And he was honest when Santa asked him if he thought he would fall down (his response was "well, sometimes I will"). 

And in case you're wondering, Taylor did not sit on Santa's lap.  For one thing, she was already in bed, and for another, I was really afraid she would pull down Walker's beard and ruin the whole illusion.  There's always next year.  =)

In the Air Again (AKA Christmas 2010 part 2)

So our Christmas season continued on Dec. 22nd.  We had plans to fly out of Indianapolis shortly before 8 PM Eastern time.  Since both of us still had school that day, it was going to be really interesting.  But fortunately (or rather to look at the silver lining of a crummy situation) was that the stomach flu that Taylor had on Sunday and Monday transferred to Walker on Tuesday night so I made him stay home from school on Wednesday (could you imagine traveling with a toddler AND a sick hubby?  I don't think so!).   Somehow knowing that he wasn't also rushing home from school helped me feel better.  So shortly after 3 we hopped on the road towards Indy.  Traffic wasn't terrible and thankfully we only got held up for a few minutes around some construction.  We get to the airport and start searching for a parking spot.  Oh boy....it was crowded!  Luckily we found one pretty quickly and let's just say I'm thankful for our small car.  The people on either side of us clearly missed the day parking was covered in driver's ed.  Another blessing was that our car was near one of the "bus stations" and the shuttle pulled up right as we got to the shelter.  So far, so good.  We get in the terminal and yet another blessing- very small line for check in.  Although, I'm not happy that US Airways raised their rates for checked luggage again.   But we can't complain- after all the plane tickets were a very generous gift from my sister.   So we get all checked in and head over to security; the part I was dreading probably the most.  The line wasn't as bad as I thought but turns out it didn't matter how long the line was.  As soon as the TSA guy saw us, he moved back the rope thingy and put us right to the front!  He did that for anyone traveling with small children.  Major props for Indy airport on that one.  NO other airport I've gone through with Taylor has done that (and keep in mind that the last 2 times I traveled with her, I was by myself, had 2 carry ons PLUS a full size stroller and a car seat).   So lesson learned- travel through Indy if possible!!

Since we saved time going through security, we had enough time to get some dinner.  Now here's what does NOT make sense.  Outside of security they have a McDonald's and some other chain fast food places.  Once you get inside the gates though, they have almost nothing.  So we had dinner from Hot Dog King or something like that.  I will admit my corn dog was delicious but it was hard finding something for Taylor.   Luckily a kiosk had bottles of whole chocolate milk so Taylor had that and munched on some french fries.  Ahhhh the food we have to eat when we travel.

So far everything was going pretty well- our plane left on time and the ride wasn't that bad.  Taylor did get a little fussy towards the end of the flight but by this point, she'd been up about 3 hours past her bedtime.   We land in Charlotte and have to do a very fast walk to get to our other gate which feels like it's on the opposite end of the airport.  We barely had time to sit down before they started calling us to board.   Our plane to Greensboro was much smaller- in fact we had to go outside and board from the tarmac.   But it was a good short flight.   And by the time we landed it was now almost 5 hours past Taylor's bed time.  Did she sleep at all on the plane?  NOPE.   It took forever for us to get the stroller from the plane (quick plug for the Chicco lightweight strollers- they come with a carrying bag; MAJOR plus when you're traveling with one on a plane!) but we made it out of there just fine.  Taylor took a quick snooze on the ride to my sister's house and of course was wiiiide awake again once we got settled in the guest room.   It ended up being a very late night for the 3 of us but the most important thing was we got to NC safe and sound and so did all of our luggage.

So ends part 2.....I certainly can ramble on about air travel!   Next up, Christmas party and Christmas Eve in NC!

Christmas 2010 (Part 1)

No telling how many "parts" there will be to our Christmas this year.  I think it will have to do with how long I can sit in the computer chair without my back hurting or my butt going numb (thank you 3rd trimester).

We celebrated our family Christmas early this year due to our trip to NC.  So Christmas morning for us was actually December 18th.  I kinda thought since Taylor is still so young and wasn't anxious to open presents that we could maybe have breakfast first (a very important meal to a preggo) but Walker decided presents were more important. I guess some kids never grow up. =)

I really thought this year would be more exciting for Taylor than last year.  Perhaps it was, but it still wasn't as thrilling as I was imagining (setting my expectations too high again).  Taylor still doesn't quite understand what the big deal with presents is.  Truth be told, Sadie (our dog) was more excited for the presents than Taylor.  In fact, once we let her open one of her presents, she thought every present after that was for her!

Anyway, since finances were a bit tight this year, Walker and I did not spend a lot of money on each other, although I was pleasantly surprised with a new camera bag that has room for my camera and 3 lenses!  As for Taylor's presents...well a lot of them were just birthday presents rewrapped in Christmas paper (hey, this will probably be the ONLY year I get to do that!).   Just to clarify, she never played with any of the presents before Christmas- when she got them for her birthday, I put them all in a big bag out of her reach so they were essentially new toys for her.  I have to say, doing this not only saved us money but it saved us room in the house.  I can't imagine where we would have put any more toys!

But it didn't seem to matter to Taylor what was inside the present; the more fun part was playing with the wrapping paper and tissue paper.  Maybe next year we'll save money again and just give her a big gift bag of tissue paper!

Sadie loved opening her presents

Taylor likes her xylophone

Taylor opens an ornament from my Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Bill

Wheee!  Tissue paper!

And now my butt is numb.  To be continued.....

Why Shutterfly is Awesome

Okay so basically I'm writing this to get 50 free cards from Shutterfly (thanks Emily for spreading word about the promotion!).  I have used Shutterfly in the past for several things.  The most recent project is actually something I can't mention on here because they are gifts and I wouldn't want to spoil it.  However, before that I did design Taylor's birthday invitations using this card:

 But obviously there was a "1" and Taylor's picture instead.  I got a lot of compliments on them.  I must say it was very hard to choose an invitation because there were so many great choices!

We also used Shutterfly for Taylor's birth announcements last year.  What was great was that they doubled as our Christmas card.  Of course they don't have that design available anymore (another great thing about Shutterfly- they constantly get new designs!).  But if you wanted to do something similar, I found this cute announcement/holiday card:

So now I have the task of picking a Christmas card for this year.  I've already taken Taylor's holiday photos and since I got quite a few good ones, I'm going to need a card that holds multiple pictures.
Here are some that I like:

  There are more that I really like, but I don't think I can post them all on here!  Not sure which one we're going with yet so I guess you'll just have to wait for your card to come in the mail.   I love how Shutterfly lets you customize the text on the cards so you can write pretty much anything.  Also, you can change the color and font of the text so the card is really personalized.   Maybe next year we'll make a calendar.  I really like this one:

And let's not forget I'll have to make birth announcements again here in a few months- I just checked out some of the new designs and they are SO adorable. 
Anyway, if you're interested in the blogger promotion that Shutterfly has got check out the requirements here.

Happy shopping and happy blogging!

1 Year Old!

Wow, a year has past already.  Honestly, there have been times this past year where I wondered what I had gotten myself into.  But even though motherhood is extremely difficult at times, it is so much more rewarding than I ever thought it could be.  But enough of my reminiscing... on with the update!

Weight: 16 lbs, 14.5 oz.  So Taylor has gained almost 11 pounds in one year.  So she didn't triple her birth weight like she was supposed to, but she stayed steady on the 4th percentile growth curve so the doctor is not concerned at all.  Honestly, I'm okay with it because she's still very easy to haul around; especially on days like today when she fell asleep in my arms at Target and I had to carry her around the store.  And honestly, 17ish lbs of dead weight is heavy enough!

Height: 27 3/4 inches.  I know I said a few months ago that she was 28 inches but that's because that's what the nurse said at the time.  Taylor did not shrink though.  It's just that today we had a nurse who's normally not a peds nurse and she had an odd way of doing Taylor's height.  She had me lay Taylor down on the table and then used her pen to mark on the table where Taylor's heels were and where her head was so it was a very precise measurement compared to the estimates we'd been getting.  But I was surprised to learn that her height puts her at the 48th percentile.  So she's jumped up percentiles for height which is great.  So now instead of just being petite, we can call her a beanpole.  Her dad is too so I'm not very surprised.  But even though she's middle of the road for height, I still need to buy 9 month or 6-12 month pants for her.  12 month pants are simply too long so I'm thinking most of her height is in her torso.  Definitely got that from her dad!

Language: We have our first words!  Taylor can now say "go go go!"   This comes courtesy of my daycare provider.  Does she know what it means?  Probably not, but it is pretty much the only word she repeats back to us consistently.  Occasionally we can get her to repeat buh-bye (which comes out as buh-buh-buh) and recently she has started growling whenever Sadie or I growl at her (to clarify, Sadie growls because she's annoyed- I growl only after I preface it with "what does a lion say?").  Other than that we have lots of syllables being repeated and our new favorite thing to do in the car; scream at the top of our lungs (she's not mad- she just likes making noise).  Oh yes, she also can "shhhh" when we prompt her.  I'm very happy about that- it's good practice for when her little sister gets here.

Physical Development: Well I already posted about how she's walking everywhere.  She gets better and better every day.  And Taylor is learning to throw a ball.  It doesn't go very far, but she's getting the concept.  And Taylor loves being a helper.  This entails pulling clothes out of the laundry basket (even after they've been folded) and unloading the dishwasher.  Well, the only part of the dishwasher she unloads is the silverware.  But she pulls out the silverware and gives it to us so we can put it away.  I know she'd pull out the plates and bowls if we let her but they're heavier than the silverware and I don't want her to drop them.  Now if only we could train her to load the dishwasher!

Cognitive Development: Probably the most exciting cognitive development we've had recently is that Taylor is starting to learn to play with the shape sorters.  So far, she can put the circle into the circle hole all by herself.  The other shapes she still needs a little help on getting all of the corners in at the same time. 

I think that's a good update.  And now for the pictures which were a total fail.  We only got one picture where there's almost a smile.  Oh well....

The Big Party

I promised an entry about the party and here it is.  We celebrated this past Saturday so Taylor wasn't technically 1 yet, but I figured no one would come to a party the weekend after Thanksgiving (not that I blame them with all of the great shopping to be done!).  The party was a big success.  Almost everyone came which was awesome.  I'm so glad Walker has a lot of family in the area because if we had to rely on my family as guests then Taylor would have been pretty disappointed. ;)   Anyway, we didn't really have a theme other than the decorations were pink and brown.  I'm so not into all the character stuff so it was hard to do a theme.  Anyway, Taylor loved seeing all of her relatives and opening her presents.  But of course the best part was the cupcake at the end.  I could go on, but I think pictures do a better job.  =)

 All the loot

 Yummy cupcakes!!

 Why yes, I did make the banner =)

 Taylor took a snooze in the middle of the party to make up for her missed afternoon nap.

 Papaw holding the 2 youngest grandchildren

 Taylor needed a little help from daddy opening her presents

 Where's my cupcake?

 Am I supposed to eat this or can I just play with it?

 Mmmmmm that's a good cupcake

 Sugar high!

 Frosting is good for the skin

Graden checks to see if Taylor wants to share her leftovers

Even the shoes were not immune to frosting fingers

Whoops!

Hmmmm how did I let Taylor's 1 birthday slip by without a blog post?  Well I didn't want to post her 12 month stats until we go to the doctor tomorrow (already cringing at the thought of more shots =( ).   I  want to get her official weight and height.  I'm thinking she's not much more than 17 pounds.  We'll see if I'm right. ;)
We did have a wonderful party on Saturday and I will post more details (and pictures) from that tomorrow.  Thankfully I don't have school so I'll be able to get all of this done while she naps.

In the meantime, you can enjoy this video that Walker put together of her 1st year. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFS5S_RyMjo